Comparison Culture

Comparison Culture between American culture and Indonesian Culture
There are many differences between American and Indonesian cultures because both of them have unique cultures. Now, I am going to share you some information about family values, introduction, and verbal communication.

Let’s check it out:

a)      The Americans are independent people or individual people. But the Indonesians are dependent people.

b)      In American culture, it is not uncommon for parents to put a newborn in the separate room. Even, if it belongs to the child only. It helps parents to teach their newborn to independent, even though they are still younger. On the other hand, the Indonesians especially parents mostly put their newborn in their room (the same room).

c)      Many American children are thought very early to make decisions and be responsible for their actions. But in Indonesian, many children are hopefully the helping from older people to give decisions to them. Sometimes, it makes them become unconfident.

d)      Often the Americans work for money outside the home when they are still children. For example, children may deliver newspapers in their neighborhood, and the salary that they get can be theirs. It is a first step to establish autonomy, and make them to be more independent. Differently, in Indonesian, many children start to work for money outside the home, if they have grown. But sometimes, some children work for money to help their parent’s finance. For example, children may sell cakes.

e)      Mostly, American children between 18 and 21 years old are encouraged begin an independent life, but it is not forced. In Indonesian culture, the children begin an independent life if they have married or got a job.

f)       After American children leave home, they often find social relationship and financial support outside the family. Moreover, many Indonesian children will support their

financial by themselves if they have married and got a job.

g)      In American, everyone free to choose their career. It is similar with Indonesian culture, but sometimes parents force their children to choose a career that they want to.

h)     In American culture, if the couples who have special relationships want to get married, they do not have to ask permission from their family even their parents. They just invite their family to their wedding party. In contrast, the Indonesians have to ask permission before they get married. If they do not ask permission especially from their parents, they cannot get married.

i)        In American, if you want to visit to your friends’ home, you must tell them before. So, you must make an appointment first. But in Indonesia, you can visit your friends’ home anytime as long as the host is in the home.

j)        Directness is also important in American culture. For example, when a child gets a bad grade in a school, he will tell about that to his or her parents. On the other hand, Indonesian children will not tell about that to their parents because fear. They afraid of their parents if the parents angry at them. So, they will avoid their bad grade from their parents.

k)      In American, family structure divides into nuclear family and extended family. Nuclear family consists of the father, the mother, and the children. The extended family consists of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, and in-laws. Conversely, there is no division of family structure such as nuclear and extended family in Indonesia. In here, all of people who include in nuclear and extended family are called family. So, Indonesian family includes father, mother, children, cousins, grandparents, nephew, and so on.

l)        For American, it’s not unusual in times of financial need for nuclear family members to borrow money from a bank rather than from relatives. It is different with Indonesian culture. Mostly, nuclear members prefer to borrow money from relatives rather than a bank.

m)   The Americans always speak to the point, if there is something that has to say. But in Indonesian culture, to the point is irreverent. So, many people always start the conversation with chit chat before telling what have to be told.

n)     On time to come in a meeting is American culture. So, they will not late to join a meeting. Mostly, American people come to a meeting in time. So they are never late. On the other hand, a part of Indonesians do not appreciate the time. So sometimes, they come late in the meeting.

o)      If we talking to the Americans, we have to pay attention them because they will speak loudly and quickly.  In Indonesian, the intonation of someone speech depend on his/her ethnic. As far as we know that Indonesian has many ethnics. Commonly, speak softly and slowly is rude in Indonesian culture.

p)      The Americans always fill silence by saying something even if they have nothing to say. On the other hand, the Indonesians will keep silence if nothing to say. Then, they keep silence while looking for a topic to discuss in that conversation. Sometimes, only one person who talk in the conversation and the other one just listen to his or her statement.

q)      If there is an American offer some food to you, you must response it with yes or no at that time. In American culture, they are offering the food just once. On the other hand, the Indonesians will offer the food more than once. So if you are not response yet, they will offer you again.

r)       In American culture, direct eye contact is very important in the conversation. It can show your respect to the other one. But in Indonesian culture, sometimes we do not have to keep direct eye contact. For example when we have a conversation with an older person. We do not have to keep eye contact with him or her because keep eye contact is impolite for some ethnics in Indonesian.

s)       The Americans always shake hand like a death fish. It means that their shake hand is firmly and briefly. According to their culture, shake hand is join hands each other. But in Indonesian, sometimes, the Indonesians do not doing firm shake hand. Then, there are many kinds of shake hands in Indonesian. It is not only like western shake hands style but also shake hands without join hands, even shake hands with kiss the other people hand. Shake hands with kiss on the other people hand will be happen when we shake hands with older people.

t)        In American culture, asking about someone’s personal information such as age, name, salary, and married is very rude.  So, we must not ask them about those. It is different with Indonesian culture. We can ask about someone’s personal information if he or she is well known to us.

u)     The Americans do not like the people who dominate a conversation. So, they must have balance time to give feedback each other. On the other hand, the Indonesians like the people who dominate a conversation because Indonesian people like debate.

v)      Actually, in American culture, directness is importance. But sometimes, we do not need it. For example to comment someone’s weight. We can say about that with the other statement. In Indonesian culture, it does not matter if we want to comment someone’s weight. But we must say that with polite expression.

w)    In the USA, women can start the conversation first. Commonly in Indonesian culture, the man starts the conversation first. Where relationships between genders are regulated not only by cultural traditions, but also by religious norm for Islam is very influential in Indonesia. As a result, Indonesian women are often very limited in their verbal communication with the man. So that’s why the term of “ladies first” is not applied in Indonesian. So, man usually starts the conversation if there is something that has to say.

They are just a little lists about two cultures from two countries. Actually, so many comparisons between one culture and the other culture but it is not a reasons that can separate us. Different culture is unique and unique is excess from that country itself.